Police sniff out ultimate weapon

A small posse of sheriff's deputies in Compton has unleashed a new weapon in the war on crime.

It is remarkably small, improbably inexpensive, stunningly low-tech and for the past seven months has proved incredibly effective. So effective, in fact, that Shaun Mathers of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department wonders why more departments have not realised that such a tool might be right under their noses.

"I was kind of grousing with some friends," he said. "What could we do to make our officers more visible in the community? And someone said: 'Maybe we could use a good odour, like fresh baked cookies.' As I was driving home, it struck me. Maybe there's a value in a bad odour."

That value, Lieutenant Mathers thought, would be in clearing out the vacant buildings that become magnets for prostitutes, drug dealers and gangs. After a few experiments with chemical stink bombs, he and Deputy Scott Gage found a petroleum-based gel called SkunkShot on the internet. "It's pretty weird," Deputy Gage said, "but it's brilliant."

And the Skunk Squad was born. Its first success, Lieutenant Mathers said, came early this year on Long Beach Boulevard.

"There was an old vacant bungalow-style motel which is in a heavily populated prostitute area," he said. "People were coming and going to use narcotics. One part of it had even burned down because they were using candles to light the place. It was dangerous."

One day in May, the deputies took several small $US15 ($21) tubes of SkunkShot and spread them around the building, which they had just cleared of the drug users and prostitutes. Several hours later, Lieutenant Mathers was amazed to find no one there.

"It's horrible, just unbearable for two days," he said of the odour. "After five or six days you can still smell it. We even got in a battle of smells with the folks there. They were bringing cans of Glade and scented candles, but that stuff just can't compete."

The inventor of SkunkShot, Andrew Rakich, an Australian, is a laser and satellite engineer. He thought of the idea 10 years ago as a sort of aerosol for women to use to fend off attackers or as an animal repellent for gardeners.

The product is synthetic, but chemically its components mimic a skunk's musk.

"We're certainly not milking skunks," Mr Rakich said. "That would be one of the worst jobs in the world. I've never even actually seen a skunk myself, but we're all aware of them down here . . ."